Alexa Grasso can currently be seen coaching opposite rival Valentina Shevchenko on The Ultimate Fighter 32, with a date at The Sphere in Las Vegas this September the likely landing spot for their coaches’ fight.
If all goes according to plan, they’ll get to hash out just who the better fighter is. That, after Grasso earned a shock submission win to dethrone the previously-dominant flyweight champ of March of 2023, a fight that was followed up by a draw last September.
“I’m excited. I wish this fight can be possible. I know she’s competitive, I’m competitive. We’ve shared forty-five minutes in the octagon now,” Grasso (16-3-1) told Cageside Press in an exclusive interview during International Fight Week. “She’s someone that I’ve been looking [at] for so long. She’s a big inspiration for women. And now meeting her at this level, to be able to submit her, to make her knocked down, to take her down, it’s amazing. To grab her back again.”
While there has been some talk that an opponent other than Shevchenko might be next for the UFC women’s flyweight champ, she’s hoping to get the fight done. “It’s really cool for me, and I’m just hoping that this is a fight that could be done again. Because we both didn’t like the draw, honestly. Any of us [don’t] like to draw. This third fight could be the point to see who’s the best one.”
Grasso also spoke with Cageside Press about the different mindset she keeps, and different way she carries herself, as a champion.
“Being a champion is way different. Now every time I wake up, I think to myself, I have to be better than yesterday, I have to work harder. All the girls are coming for my head,” she stated.
That inspires Grasso to keep herself in the best shape, best conditioning, and with the best technique ever in her fighting career. “It’s tough to keep myself at this level,” the flyweight champ went on to add. “You have to do excellent, everything you do. I think that’s the thing that changed, being the contender, now being the champion.”
“I’ve been working so long for this opportunity, for this championship. I truly worked so, so hard from the start of my career til now. Right now, it’s just to keep myself sharper and sharper every time.”
Watch our full interview with UFC women’s flyweight champion Alexa Grasso above.
